Thursday, June 26, 2014

A few weeks before Grace's garden themed birthday party, I spotted an abandoned plant stand on the side of the road.

As I skidded to a stop, I noticed a man {at the home where the
abandoned plant stand lay neglected and lonely}. Bolder than I normally
would be, I asked him if he was really giving such a treasure away.

Not only did he nod his head in agreement BUT he then offered to load it into my car.

There, at home, it proudly sat. It waited for the mister to come home
and welcome it into our collection of useful things. I waited for the mister to
come home and praise my resourcefulness.

Both the plant stand and I were disappointed in the mister's reaction. He actually said, um...I don't understand what you plan on doing with it.

Monday, June 23, 2014

The first is the cake. The second is the party favor bag. We take our sweets and treats seriously around here.

These garden party favor bags were made using plain brown paper bags. I used 3 layers of tissue paper and some double sided tape for the fringed 'grass'. And, a Hawaiian lei was sacrificed so I could hot glue a flower to the bag as well.

Each goodie bag was filled with a flower pot, a packet of wildflower seeds and a flower ring pop. And, each guest went home with their own garden apron made out of vintage floral fabric.

Though I liked how the garden party favor bags turned out, they seem more fitting for a Hawaiian Luau.

First, in addition to being a thrift store shopper, we {the husband and I} are flea market groupies. We go to 2 flea markets a month and have befriended several vendors.

One vendor, I begrudgingly befriended, after I shunned him for a few months because he ignored my inquiry to buy his Richard Scary Puzzletown characters.

I begrudgingly befriended him when I noticed his lovely collection of vintage fabrics. He had yards and yards of fabrics priced to sell. All the vintage loveliness below, approximately 30 yards of fabric for $12!

My husband, who either knows me too well, or not well enough, suggested that I should turn this vintage floral fabric into gardening aprons for each guest we invited to Grace's garden themed birthday party.

How many guests, did you ask, had we invited to Grace's garden themed party? 14.

Of course, after he made that suggestion, he quickly retracted his suggestion claiming there was no way I would be able to finish 14 aprons.

When challenged, I will do what it takes to prove you wrong.

As soon as we got home from the flea market, I started cutting, ironing and prepping the aprons.

Each apron included pleating detail. I mean, I can't just make aprons to prove my competency to my darling husband. This required wowing him.

One day later, 14 pleated garden aprons were complete.

All 14 aprons were then nestled inside the flower punch box.

Once they were punched free, 14 little girls enjoyed our garden party in their vintage flower aprons.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

What is a punch box you might be asking yourself. Don't worry, I had no
idea until I saw it being pinned and featured everywhere I turned.

The woman that made this latest trend go viral, Elena from 'a Casarella, has pinatas all over the world crying, 'don't forget about me'.

A punch box holds all sorts of prizes inside and the only way to get them out, punch through the holes. How much fun is that?

One of the things I love so much about punch boxes, just like with pinatas, you can customize them to fit your party theme.

For our garden themed party, we opted for a flower themed punch box. Yellow tissue paper makes up the center of the flowers. I cut out and glued 7 pink petals around the yellow tissue paper center. And, at the last minute, added a few green leaves.

You know your punch box was a success if, when you are done, it looks like this.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

If you are willing to invest a little time {and possibly third degree burns from your hot glue gun}, these party hats make a beautiful, bold statement.

I loosely followed the tutorial to make these flower hats from Oh Happy Day, which you can find here. The changes I made were using 1. using store bought party hats, 2. using tissue paper instead of crepe paper and 3. I scaled the flowers down to a smaller size.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

For Grace's birthday parties, we used to decorate the front of our house with balloons. Since weather rarely cooperates for our parties, alternating between extremely hot weather to torrential downpours, balloons typically do not fare well.

With a big front porch, instead of decorating with balloons, I now decorate the front of the steps with a birthday message typically working in the theme of the party.

This year, we threw Grace a flower/garden party. After weeks of brainstorming, I decided on: 6 and sweet as can bee. I thought it fit our garden theme and it also is so true of this little lady.

To decorate the stairs, I use my silhouette and some black vinyl. The vinyl is easy to peel and stick and just as easy to remove.

The first time we decorated our stairs was for Grace's 3rd birthday, an art themed birthday party. Definitely not original but the simple 'Happy Birthday Grace' message proved to be a good backdrop for pictures.

The next year, for Grace's 4th birthday, a big top circus themed party, I decided to get more creative with the stairs.

Of course, not everyone read the stairs as 'step right up'...but you can read more about that in real life confessions of a wanna be party planner here.

The stairs have proven to be one of my favorite things to decorate. Not only do they set the tone for the party but they also provide a great place to take pictures that conger up memories from each celebration.

About Me

Adjusting to life since being laid off. When days used to consist of business deals and wearing heels. Now that I am a stay at home mom, in addition to taking care of my adorable little girl, I am learning more about cooking, crafting and creating while realizing that even though I am a stay at home mom, I can still wear my heels!

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